healeys
[Top] [All Lists]

How we pick pur Marque

To: <healeys@autox.team.net>
Subject: How we pick pur Marque
From: "Allen C Miller, Jr." <acmiller@mhcable.com>
Date: Sat, 14 Jan 2006 07:39:25 -0500
I graduated from college in 1972, and immediately traded my slobTshirts for 
the starched whites of a young ensign whose facial tan stopped abruptly at a 
new hairline which told all of a rapid conversion from long haired college 
puke into a modern warrior. Commensurate with my newfound glamour, I bought 
my first car, a five year old 1967 Austin Healey, and learned to drive stick 
the hard way, one stoplight at a time under the watchful eyes of smirking 
Philadelphia police patrols. Having mastered the art of driving stylishly, I 
proceeded to my parents' farm in Upstate New York to proudly pronounce my 
emancipation by turning donuts in the barnyard, in the process turning the 
OEW Mark III into a mud-encrusted tank. The Healey became part of, no it 
became, my identity, and four years and one bride later, I emerged from 
military service, now the owner of a Ferrari red 100-4 that I'd rebuilt in a 
10x20 self-storage bin. We traded the 3000 for a "somewhat ratty", but very 
intact BN1 which sported Borani wheels, and had been rewired by a nutty 
professor who preferred wiring bridges from the physics lab over a 
legitimate wiring harness. The 100 was a daily driver for the next decade, 
seeing us through lawschool and a daily companion until we got the house 
restoration bug.

The BN1 was sold to an interesting guy from New York City who paid us in 
installments with checks drawn San Francisco, The Bahamas and a few other 
places. He tendered the final $2,000 on delivery to a parking median on the 
Taconic Parkway, handing a bag of crumpled $10's, $20's and $50's. Never 
quite got around to what he did for a living. Anyway, the $6,000 bought a 
new furnace that lasted five years.

We were in Healey remission for twenty years, doing responsible things. Then 
the Marque picked me again, this time on my 52nd birthday when "Emily" went 
up on Ebay. After a few birthday drinks, my fingers fell into a rhythmic 
confirm bid / enter sequence that carried on until the last 20 seconds of 
the auction. I tiptoed to bed, guilty over breaking three successive 
I-won't-go-over's, hoping that my bidding incontinence would pass unnoticed 
til morning. To my amazement, breaking the family bank didn't phaze Jean, 
who immediately started reminiscing about the fun we had treachery back in 
the 70's until I sold HER 3000.

Anyway, that's how our Marque picked us. Never had a choice, really.

Allen Miller BN2-M 




<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>